PRINCETON UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT AND PROGRAM OF EAST ASIAN STUDIES ANNUAL REPORT 2020-21 EAS ANNUAL REPORT, JUNE 2021 1 ANNUAL REPORT 2020-21 PRINCETON UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT & PROGRAM OF EAST ASIAN STUDIES ANNUAL REPORT 2020-2021 Director’s Letter...4 Department and Program News...6 Language Programs...7 Undergraduates...9 Graduate Students...13 Faculty...15 Events...20 Summer Programs...22 Affiliated Programs...25 Libraries & Museum...27 ABOVE: Flowers and Birds (huaniao ce 花鳥冊), 1731, Li Shan 李鱓, 1686-ca. 1756. Album leaf; ink and pale color on paper. y1976-42h. Col- lection of the Princeton University Art Museum. This is an 18th century depiction of the cicada cycle in China, a cycle that made its way up to the topsoil of Princeton this year. (Ed.) COVER: The Korean Language Program received the gift of an eight-panel folding screen from artist Moon Sun Young. Chaekgado (책가도, Books and Things). This chaekgado is framed by an octagonal bunhapmun (반합문) door with a set of lattice windows. These doors bear courtly dignity, hinting at a royal target audience. The shelves behind the doors are made up of six sections, slightly altering the symmetry. This work shares formal similarities with the works of Jang Han-jong (장한종) in its use of brown hues, the use of the bunhapmun door to signify nobility, the central placement of the partition with the landscape painting, and the simple three-dimensional portrayal of the objects. The use of the bunhapmun door as a frame also makes this piece an unusual example of chaekgado. 2 EAS ANNUAL REPORT, JUNE 2021 EAS ANNUAL REPORT, JUNE 2021 3 DIRECTOR’S LETTER RESILIENCE As government and university policies ease in the coming months, the East Asian Studies Program will resume its I’ve been really amazed by the strength and resourcefulness funding for this work. In fact, we aim to be more flexible of Princeton’s East Asian Studies community. During more than in the past about the timing of research, to help students than one year of historic challenges, our students, staff, and regain momentum in their research. We are also open to faculty have taken on new responsibilities, developed skills, helping researchers develop alternative—distanced— drawn on unknown strengths, and helped each other live methods for conducting research in the field. Individual better and learn together. Some students recalibrated their departments continue to ponder and implement measures to internal clocks to Zoom into class from all over the world, help academics-in-training navigate a changing job market and those in Princeton figured out how to support each and meet demands for new skill-sets. other while maintaining an unprecedented social contract based on solo living. Staff members provided stellar levels UNDERGRADUATES of service; despite weekly alterations in room quotas and building access, they searched library stacks, set up financial Those pursuing independent work shifted significantly to aid portals, and processed certificates and degrees. Faculty address the problems of today with insight, clarity, and learned new pedagogies and performance techniques to build heightened awareness of the real-world payoffs of engaging excitement into distance-learning. with problems in an academic or scholarly vein. Senior theses and independent projects looked at many twenty- CHALLENGES first century topics, including child-trafficking, political protest, religious persecution, human rights mechanisms, The challenges of the past eighteen months have been immigration policy, fat intake in national diets, Asian-African Night scene of the fountain at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs when the Twelve Zodiacs (by Ai Weiwei) were installed there. Photo by Stephen F. Teiser. severe, and we’re fortunate that Princeton University development policies, gender disparities in university leadership responded so quickly, forcefully, and effectively to attendance, internet addiction, domestic violence, the fanbase 100 or more, drawing attendees from every time zone on the are fortunate that he will continue in the demanding role as the exigencies of the day. As I compose this letter in late May for K-Pop, and, of course, many perspectives on the East globe. Director of Princeton-in-Beijing. of 2021, looking forward to resuming a semblance of our Asian dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, a former academic life on campus in Fall 2021, I’m reminded total of 39 undergraduates focused on East Asian Studies: 8 OUTREACH The wide range of teaching and research under the of the challenges we have faced. Language learning was majored in East Asian Studies, 18 earned certificates in the aegis of East Asian Studies and related groups is related in put under additional strain—and this, for languages that are East Asian Studies Program, and 13 pursued certificates in One of the gems of East Asian Studies at Princeton is a the pages that follow. I hope you will sample the news from more challenging than most. Research and learning abroad East Asian Language and Culture. regular series of teacher training workshops organized by students, faculty, and visiting scholars, review the listing of was suspended, and many international students sought Dr. Lesley Solomon and funded by the Freeman Foundation lectures and conferences, and read about the activities of our haven at homes far away from New Jersey. Locally, the U.S. LANGUAGE LEARNING and the East Asian Studies Program. The series is part of the library, museum, and the many departments, centers, and social fabric was rent by ugly incidents of racial violence, National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTA), a programs that make up EAS. some involving anti-Asian bias, while the national political Language learning morphed from in-person and abroad to multi-year initiative to facilitate teaching and learning about consensus broke down, often violently. Many members of entirely online during summer of 2020 (Princeton-in-Beijing China, Japan, and Korea in world history, geography, social I close this annual letter by expressing special thanks to the Princeton community faced sickness and loss of family and Princeton-in-Ishikawa), a medium that continued into the studies, and literature courses for secondary school teachers. the staff of the EAS Department as well as EAS Program and friends. All of us (if we’re honest) suffered more than fall and spring semesters of 2020-2021. Our students proved This year’s theme was East Asia in World History: From Manager Richard Chafey and EAS Program Coordinator the usual alienation, difficulty concentrating, and other forms resilient, rising to the challenges of increased screen time. the Silk Road to the Belt and Road. It featured lectures and Chao-Hui Jenny Liu for their hard work and flexibility, so of distress. These are just some of the nearly unprecedented Princeton’s language instructors were particularly resourceful discussions led by Princeton University faculty and others, crucial in keeping afloat the ship of East Asian Studies. challenges that Princeton East Asian Studies met—with and hardworking. Like our colleagues in Music and Theater, enrolling numbers much higher than in years when the strength and grace. they quickly invented new methods, prepared new materials, sessions were held in person. Stephen F. Teiser and improvised new approaches for teaching all four skills GRADUATE STUDY (listening, speaking, reading, writing) in Chinese, Japanese, RETIREMENTS Stephen F. Teiser and Korean courses at all levels. D.T. Suzuki Professor in Buddhist Studies and Professor of I remain confident about the outlook for graduate study On other pages of this report we pay tribute to the Religion in the near future, despite the difficulties of the past EVENTS contributions that our esteemed colleague, C.P. Chou, has Director, Program in East Asian Studies eighteen months. Students across all departments and made to the international world of scholarship and the culture years of enrollment saw their work impacted by local and Events were slow to start in the Fall, as we adjusted to of teaching at Princeton. Professor Chou was my teacher in international restrictions. As in other fields of study focused seeing visitors and attending workshops and conferences first-year Chinese (at Oberlin College in 1975) and I have on the world outside the U.S., many of our students were only through virtual portals. But once we began, our hosts been trying to live up to his high standards ever since. I forced to postpone trips to interview informants, conduct and speakers excelled at producing exciting events and slick join with the rest of the EAS community in extending our fieldwork, work with foreign colleagues, and pursue research video recordings. In addition, the public offering of most appreciation for his dedication and accomplishments and our in archives, museums, libraries, and archaeological sites. of our events meant that attendance soared, often reaching congratulations and good wishes upon his retirement. We 4 EAS ANNUAL REPORT, JUNE 2021 EAS ANNUAL REPORT, JUNE 2021 5 DEPARTMENT & PROGRAM NEWS Anna Shields will continue in her second year as Chair of the East Asian Studies Department. Federico Marcon Statement on Anti-Asian Racism from the Department and Program is stepping down after a third year as of East Asian Studies the Director of Graduate Studies. He will be succeeded by Paize Keulemans. As part of ongoing efforts to address, ameliorate, and educate about Ksenia Chizhova completed her second anti-Asian racism, the statement